The 2011 Thing We Won't Forget Award

The first award bestowed by iBlogAmerica

I took it all pretty seriously this year. I found I couldn't even finish most of my ideas because I couldn't stop trying to be The Best Blogger You've Ever Read. Sigh. Waste of time, really.

It's all retrospectives in December. Why? Because everyone wants to know what we're supposed to remember from 2011. Well, in order to do our civic duty, we here at iBlogAmerica offer: The 2011 Thing We Won't Forget Award.

Let's get to it. What were the best fashion disasters? Dancers for Dancing Amongst the Stars? Viral Videos? It's been a huge year, to be sure. But mostly for weather, politics, and business.

WEATHER

These are a few of my favorite things, of course. We got an East Coast earthquake, a NYC hurricane, and three solid blizzards (including one on Halloween). Pretty awesome-- if problematic (because while natural events are awesome, people's lives get ruined. Like in Joplin. No smiles about that-- or about flooding in Vermont or New Jersey. Awesome weather events often are terrible ones-- and that's problematic. And an earthquake isn't weather, technically.)

POLITICS

Osama dead, gay marriage in NY, the Occupy movement, and the GOP presidential carnival are all huge events from this year. Union busting and tenure ending in education (as we predicted in this blog)-- that'll be big in the years to come, for sure.  The ten year anniversary of 9/11 will stick with us, for sure. The embarrassing US Congress will be hard to forget.  The Arab Spring, of course, the death of Qaddafi (or Gaddafi or Xaddafi or whever), the Russian winter. Kim Jong Il died. That's big in North Korea. The Axis of Evil had a terrible year! And who can forget the End of Days by Harold Camping. Oh, right: probably most of us. But I'm still excited for the Mayans in 2012!

MUSIC

But for art, my other other favorite thing, it was a pretty lousy year. Think about music. Gaga? Perry? Tyler the Creator? Beyonce? Kanye and Jay, Lil' Wayne or Wiz? Not much there. I liked Gaga's drag at the Grammy's (or was it American Music Awards). “Born This Way,” even though it's a naked ripoff of Madonna, is an awesome tag for our time. I'm glad Gaga did it. The biggest music story of 2011 may have been that Amy Winehouse died-- but she was so quickly replaced by the much-less-dangerous-to-herself-and-everyone-else-Adele that no one seemed to notice much after a month went by. The point is: there were few truly huge ideas or styles that will likely survive to next year.

MOVIES

Movies? Um. Harry Potter? Dragon Tattoo? The Tree of Life? Hugo? Melancholia? The Artist? Moneyball? Midnight In Paris? Shame or Guilt or whatever. Gosh, I don't know. Where's the unforgettable stuff? Dragon Tattoo seems like it might affect female stereotype model in Hollywood.  That would be cool.  As for the piece you can't imagine missing? I guess I missed it.

THEATRE

Broadway had Warhorse. That's pretty amazing. Big puppets, like in Avenue Q, but without the irony. Certainly an analogue standout in a year of such digital-tech development. Sleep No More has got to be the most successful installation/theatre piece of many years (all time).  I think it has more to do with shooter-perspective video games than anything else-- but that's a whole other blog.  I guess that I should mention Spider Man and Book of Mormon-- but it's hard to see how either will move theatre very far forward.

TV

I hear that there are tons of awesome shows this year. I don't really watch them-- but I should. Mad Men? American Family? Boardwalk Empire? 30 Rock? I've seen a few episodes but certainly not enough. They're all supposed to be amazing.  Memorable?  Well, Tina Fey is the most important female writer in entertainment.  That's not a small thing.

BOOKS

I read The Submission, by Amy Waldman. You should read it. It's an awesome portrait of race, religion, and politics of our time. I am so glad to have read it in the shadow of the constantly growing World Trade Center. Keep growing, building!

TECH

Siri is big. We will all be talking differently forever. Mark my words (add echo effect here). You wait until the 4 and 5 year olds of today are 14 or 15. They will not talk like robots or anything, but they will be deeply changed by the voice interfacing which is sure to be the greatest thing that Steve Jobs is leaving us all. No, he didn't invent it-- he just made its hardware platform a global phenomenon about 8 years before his company made it standard on the iPhone 4S. Yup, we'll be changed by that one.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO...

2011's biggest contribution to world history: the Too Big To Fail Movement in Business. Politically, no one is too big to fail. Look at all the toppled world leaders, Republican presidential candidates, and Anthony Wiener-- but don't look too long.

In Business, being Too Big To Fail is the winning strategy. It spawned the Occupy Movement, remains an albatross around Obama's neck, and and will likely lead to all kinds of political and class conflict in 2012. Go BP! JP Morgan! Bank of America! Congratulations to you all.

The idea “Too Big To Fail:” iBlogAmerica's winner of the 2011 Thing We Won't Forget Award.

Let me know if I forgot anything.

Thanks for the attention, gentle readers. We here at iBlogAmerica (me) wish all of you (you) a happy, prosperous, and risk-filled new year. Go get 'em in 2012, marshmallow.

Occupy: Political Party or, Well, Just a Party?

May the best narrative win.

Looking around in the golden glow of the wall sconces at the Roebling Tea Room, I found Anthea and Vanessa at the bar talking about Occupy. Anthea, in for a short stay from the UK, and Vanessa, from Venezuela, were recounting a conversation with a protester from earlier in the evening.

Still damp from a fine and chilly mist blowing around in the November evening, I just wanted a little whiskey in a glass. But I was all ears.

“She was young, yes, but so very eloquent,” said Vanessa. “These people have no agenda but to say 'there is a problem.'”

“But is that enough?” asked Anthea. “When I asked her what they wanted, she couldn't answer. What kind of protest movement has no goal?”

Vanessa thought for a moment. “I don't think there is a goal in the traditional sense. They just want to be heard. They have reasonable complaints, I think. Companies have too much power.”

Anthea smiled. “I just don't think I understand exactly what they want. What would it take for the protestors to say they achieved something?"

It's a good question. What is happening down there at those Occupy protests? I contend that how you answer that question says more about where you get your Narrative than it does about what is actually happening.

Narrative: A Working Definition

We are not Fact or Data Driven. We are Narrative Driven.

Here's how it works: something happens. People talk about what happened. People who weren't at the event must rely on how other people talk about the event. Different versions of the event are passed around. One or two versions rise to the top and become the “Narrative.”

The Narrative need not be fact-based or fair. These are incidental. It merely needs to be believed. It's often shocking, scary, sexy, or funny and almost always has a spin or slant to it.  When the event is political in any way, like Occupy, there are often at least two competing Narratives battling for your support.

It's American Idol for Stories.  It doesn't matter who can sing better.  It only matters if we like the singer.

Occupy: Waterloo or Bonnaroo
As far as I can tell, the Narratives told by supporters of the Occupy protestors include:

1. The 99% of America wants the 1% to pay more. These percentages refer to the proportional amount of total US wealth that individual people have.

2. Wall Street and Washington are corrupt, filled with criminals who use power and influence to “game” the system to unfairly and unethically amass wealth.

3. American democracy is broken and until drastic changes are made in how people are allowed to participate in politics, the US will continue to decay.

4. College debt is burying young people; education should be a right, not a burden.

Those who are critical of Occupy largely seem to think that there is NO legitimate protest at Occupy-- the only story is about the protestors themselves:

1. The protestors are anarchists and communists, interested in destroying order in America.

2. Most people involved in the movement are drug users, criminals, or opportunists who want a free lunch and state-supported unemployment.

3. Many protestors are college kids out to get wasted and bang on drums.

4. A significant number of protestors are hypocrites: wealthy kids who are “slumming” with the unemployed for the sake of adventure or to collect great stories.

There Is No "Truth," Only Narrative

In this, I see a larger view of all conversation about politics in our country.  The battle lines of politics are not idealogical; they are anecdotal.  Most people form opinions about the President, Congress, candidates, political parties based on the dominant stories in the media.  Because people tend to get their media stories from one side of the political spectrum, we are in a constant state of story battle.

Subsequently, the strongest Narratives are the ones that transcend media lines:  killing Osama was great for America, Congress sucks, unemployment is too high. When the Narrative differs across different media, the story gets less strong.  Is Obama a failure?  Are taxes too high?  Is there too much regulation? Your answer is merely an extension of the Narrative that you believe. 

Which story will solidify the Occupy Narrative?  Will it be rich, hypocritical protestors staying at the W hotel?  Filthy, violent communists raping naive coeds and pooping on cars?  Evil Corporations swinging sweetheart deals with politicians?  How about the police brutalizing protestors?  Maybe it'll be well-intentioned emergency officials getting attacked by crazed protestors.  Perhaps it'll be bailed-out Wall Street execs awarding themselves huge, end-of-year bonuses while unemployment numbers creep higher.

Which brings us back to the charming Vanessa and Anthea, two foreign nationals with the perfect amount of objectivity. Their conversation, on a stormy night in late autumn, affords a telling glimpse of American culture.  They don't know what Occupy is because there is no dominant Narrative. The competition over the successful Narrative is still in full swing.

Which Narrative will win your vote?